SAVAGES

I

Soon all the coyotes will be dead
eagle feathers cut from wires
where is the dignity in gathering for tourists and ceremony
with the self-same cherrypicker
No Oklahoma sunset ever felt so blue.

II

Soon all the coyotes will be mounted 
half-cocked in the memory of some old fool
murmuring old ways never learned in school
Old man go back to your buckskin and your silver
Your circle and your never never youth
when grandmother mom sister gone mad
she'd never seen a creature so capable of hate
so deep capacity the greed the so much blood
pull up smiling in a model-T
go back to your buckskin your silver
your circle, you bottle unbroken, you who never knew defeat
before your mother curled half-naked crying on the floor
&they hanged your uncle and said don't take any wooden nickels 
with that laugh that only white men and lizards
but even lizards have their qualities.

III

No, soon all the coyotes will be given up for lost
though some will say there was a trap
a neck, a tie, a leg, a struggle over there at the edge 
of the wilderness a child will have seen him
through tears&rage & he will wonder
father
what was the cost And the father him say
no, child, no it was not.  It was only Mr. Wilson's dogs
through tears&rage & no more wonder
but the boy him like before him say 
Father 
What was the cost?